CLEVELAND — Maxine O. Bush Elementary in Phoenix, Arizona, recently won the “Our Winning Green Space” contest. As a result, they earned an Exmark Lazer Z X-Series 60-inch riding mower and 30-inch walk-behind mower that will help maintain the school district’s athletic fields and grounds helping to create safer playing fields, as well as an athletic field make-over.
The mower package — donated by Exmark and delivered to the school grounds by the local Horizon distributor — are commercial grade mowers that the school will keep, even beyond the renovation.
Leslie Saulsby, principal at Maxine O Bush, said the school’s athletic and recreation fields were barely usable and presented a safety issue due to an aging and damaged irrigation system, drainage and seeding that resulted in uneven playing surface with that was dotted with bald spots, rocks and weeds.
As a result, the 400-student school — kindergarten through eighth grade — was unable to use the fields for recess, physical education classes or after school sports, according to Saulsby, a former athletic director.
“The meant our students have half of the athletic opportunities that other students at nearby schools,” Saulsby said. “The fields are a hinderance to having a proper PE and health curriculum as well as having a usable space for recess and activities which are essential to the individual student health and the collective spirit of our community.
“On any given day, I have two to three dozen students playing soccer on what amounts to sand and rocks without goals. We go through ice packs and band aids at an alarming pace. The condition of our fields is a major reason we are losing students to inferior charter schools.”
The “Our Winning Green Space” contest is sponsored by Project EverGreen in partnership with Exmark Manufacturing, the Sports Turf Managers Association (STMA) and The Foundation for Safer Athletic Fields for Everyone (SAFE).
The field make-over will be completed in 2022.
Previous Our Winning Green Space winners include:
- 2017 - In Memory of Community Garden and the Warrendale Community Organization, Detroit, Michigan
- 2018 - Parks & Recreation Department, Clinton, North Carolina
- 2019 - Louisa County (Va.) School District
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